THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: HUMAN RIGHTS

By IAN FISHER

Published: May 10, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 9—
There were photographs at the human rights center here Sunday: of fingers with deep infected gouges; of an imprisoned husband; of the corpse of a former Iraqi general who died late last year in American custody, the swollen pink zipper of an autopsy cut running from his groin to his neck.

There was also much screaming.

''I don't want compensation -- I only want my husband!'' shouted Hadiya Taha, 45, who said she had not seen her husband, Badr Hassan Ali, since he was detained by American soldiers in January. ''I don't know the accusations against him! I don't know anything!''

There are likely to be more scenes like the one Sunday at a news conference organized by the Organization for Human Rights in Iraq for former inmates and the families of some of the thousands of prisoners in American-run jails -- their anger given new credibility after the release of pictures showing mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib by their American guards.

For months, human rights groups and Iraqi leaders say, they have complained to American officials about the treatment of prisoners. They say that their appeals received little attention, and they concede that they heard little as serious as the images the world has now seen of naked prisoners in hoods and a young female soldier holding one by a leash.

But now the scandal has given these complaints a new platform. And Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's promise in a Senate hearing last week to pay compensation to victims has provided a new incentive for people to come forward -- though it may be increasingly hard to separate victims from opportunists.

One reason for the anger is that the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison seemed to confirm the worst of what many Iraqis believed and more than a few have experienced: that American soldiers, under extreme danger here and thus usually seen patrolling the streets with guns raised, often use excessive force against Iraqis.

''It's been a policy of being incredibly rough,'' said Stewart Vriesinga, an official with Christian Peacemaker Teams, an American-Canadian charity that has collected complaints of abuse in prisons.

The Organization for Human Rights in Iraq, which predates Saddam Hussein's fall and is the country's most prominent rights group, says it has received only two formal complaints against American soldiers, both by former prisoners, though it now expects that number to rise quickly.

Although many of the complaints voiced at the news conference Sunday concerned rough-handed arrests and the inability to see loved ones in jail, several people said they were the victims of more serious abuse. At least two said their relatives were among those who died while in American custody.

Three sons of former Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush showed pictures of his body -- taken, they said, after the corpse was dumped at a hospital in the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, and underwent an autopsy. The death certificate issued by the hospital says he died of a heart attack during interrogation. The photographs showed bruises on his face and legs.

The case of General Mowhoush, who died on Nov. 26, 2003, after complaining during an interrogation that he felt unwell and collapsed, is one of 25 prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 that United States military officials say they are investigating.

''These things are still happening to other people still in prison,'' said one of General Mowhoush's sons, Hussam, 27.

American military officials have said they believe General Mowhoush was helping finance anti-American insurgents. His sons deny this, saying that all four sons and another relative were innocents swept up in arrests in Qaim in October, and that their father turned himself in several days later.

The sons said they had been beaten and shocked with a cattle prod by interrogators demanding to know where their father was and whether they were involved in the insurgency.

One son, Qusay, said the interrogations became especially rough after what they were told was an attack on American soldiers while they were at a military installation called Tiger Base near Qaim. He said one soldier had told him, ''We are going to execute all of you today.''

Then, he said, he was taken into an interrogation room with a soldier who called himself the Devil.

''He was opposite me, holding the back of a chair, and he said, 'Tell me where your father is.' I said, 'I don't know. He is supposed to be in prison too.' ''

Then, Qusay Mowhoush said, six other soldiers started beating him.

''The Devil didn't move from his chair,'' he said. ''He seemed bored. Then he stood up and said in Arabic, 'Liar, mujahadeen, Mowhoush!' ''

He said the soldier had pulled out his pistol and held it to his temple.

''He pulled the trigger,'' he said. ''But it was just a click.''

After seven months of being moved around to other prisons -- one near Haditha, Abu Ghraib near Baghdad and Camp Bucca in the town of Um Qasr near the border with Kuwait -- the sons said they were finally freed.

Hussam Mowhoush said: ''After we were released and my father died, they said, 'We haven't found anything against you. We are sorry.' ''